Woman convicted of posing as Germanwings crash relative

2016.10.26
10:33

A woman has been given a year’s suspended jail sentence for posing as the cousin of a victim in last year’s Germanwings plane crash and obtaining compensation offered by the airline.

The woman pretended to be a relative of a teacher who was killed in the 24 March disaster in the French Alps. She travelled to France on two occasions – including once with her two children and a friend – at the expense of Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings.

The trips, which included several nights’ stay at a luxury hotel in Marseille, were worth more than €15,000 (£13,000).

Investigators found she had no links to the teacher at a school in the west German town of Haltern am See, from which 16 students and two teachers were killed in the crash.

The court in Cologne issued its ruling on Wednesday after hearing from the prosecutors, but it can still be overturned because the accused did not appear on medical grounds. If she rejects the verdict, she can request a new hearing, the court has said.

The disaster claimed the lives of 150 people, including that of the suicidal co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who deliberately slammed the plane into the French mountainside.